WHEATON SCORES $2 MILLION WIN OVER CHANG

David Wheaton was surprisingly down to earth after winning $2 million Sunday by beating Michael Chang 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the Grand Slam Cup.

''This is not something I will go around flaunting because that is not the way I feel about it,'' said Wheaton, who had previously won $1.4 million in his professional career.

The 22-year-old Minnesotan had captured only one previous professional title-at the U.S. clay-court championships last year in Charleston, S.C. But Sunday he came through in the second Grand Slam Cup.

On the lightning-fast Supreme court, the 6-foot-4-inch Wheaton smothered Chang with a punishing serve-and-volley game. He had 17 aces, including one to wrap up the first set and another on his third match point of the three-hour match. Wheaton also had 16 service winners and 27 winners at the net.

''If I was going to have one thing going for me today, I wanted it to be my serve,'' said Wheaton, who is ranked 17th in the world. ''In the big picture of the match, my serve definitely was the major factor in my game today.''

The 5-8 Chang, ranked 15th, was nearly up to the task of defusing his foe`s power as he boldly stood within the baseline to rifle back service returns. He was able to scratch out 14 break points, but managed to convert only two.

Typical of Wheaton`s ability to serve out of danger was the fourth game of the second set when he saved a break point with an ace and two points later held with an ace to consolidate an earlier break for a 3-1 lead.

Ahead 4-3 in the final set, Wheaton saved a double break point with an ace and then came up with a service winner to hold off a late bid by Chang.

''When I got a racquet on it I was able to crack a few returns, but I was not able to do that a lot,'' said the 19-year-old Chang, who won $1 million as the runner-up.

Although weary from his five-hour, five-set comeback victory over Ivan Lendl in the semifinals the day before, Chang almost willed himself back into Sunday`s match in the last set. Down by 1-4, Chang clawed out a service break to make it 4-2 and then held for 4-3.

''You have to have a certain amount of confidence to even attempt to come back and since I`ve been there before I thought, `Hey, what makes this situation different?` '' Chang said.

After stomping out the rally by holding his last two service games, Wheaton praised Chang`s effort.

''I`m serving big, up 2-0 in sets and up 4-1, and 99 percent of the players say it is over and he is still in there,'' Wheaton said. ''But that is what Michael Chang is good at, putting pressure on you when you are ahead.''